Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem #1-2

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Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem #1-2

Post by Col_Fury »

ULTIMATUM: SPIDER-MAN REQUIEM #1 (September 2009)
By Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen (framing sequence) & Mark Bagley (flashback)

APPEARANCES:
Jonah Jameson (also in fbs), Joe Robertson (also in fb), Ben Urich (also in fb), Iron Man (also in fb), Spider-Man (in fbs), Mary Jane Watson (in fb), Madame Hydra (in fb)

FLASHBACKS:
Jonah watches Spider-Man save people when Manhattan is flooded (during Ultimatum). Mary Jane interviews Tony Stark for an article she’s writing for her high school class. Suddenly, Hydra attacks. Ben Urich hears about it and Peter overhears the conversation and helps out as Spider-Man. Spider-Man and Iron Man defeat Hydra. Iron Man thanks Spider-Man and says he owes him; Spider-Man says he could use college tuition. Iron Man thinks he’s joking (“months ago”).
SYNOPSIS:
Jonah, Robbie and Ben return to the Daily Bugle the day after Manhattan was flooded. Jonah realizes he’s been a giant B-hole to Spider-Man and Robbie and Ben tell Jonah he should write a story about it. Jonah looks over some of the stories of Ben’s that he’s rejected in the past until Ben says that CNN say that Spider-Man is dead; Jonah’s writing Spider-Man’s obituary.

NOTE:
In the main flashback Iron Man is wearing armor that looks like his movie armor, but Ultimate Iron Man wears that manga/mech-looking armor. There are also a bunch of Iron Man drones that have different designs, none of which look like the Ultimate Iron Man suit. Maybe they’re prototypes?

There are some pin-ups with Jonah's narration over them, but they're not flashbacks, they're reminders of previous stories by way of pin-up art.

ULTIMATUM: SPIDER-MAN REQUIEM #2 (September 2009)
By Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen (framing sequence) & Mark Bagley (flashback)

APPEARANCES:
Jonah Jameson, Spider-Man (also in fbs), Captain America, Iron Man, Power Princess, Daredevil (bts), Barack Obama (bts), -> Mary Jane Watson (in fb), Liz Allen (in fb), Hulk (in fb), Peter’s high school literature teacher (in fb), possibly Gen. Ross (in fb) <- (see NOTE)

FLASHBACKS:
Spider-Man saves people as Manhattan is flooded (during Ultimatum). Peter’s school day is interrupted when the army encounters the Hulk outside in the street. Spider-Man decides to help and herds the Hulk away from the school, but Hulk tosses a tank into a bus full of kids. Spider-Man tries to save the bus, but is interrupted when Hulk saves the bus instead. Hulk calms down and reverts to Bruce Banner, who Spider-Man recognizes as a scientist. The army tries to shoot Bruce, but he just turns into Hulk again and jumps away. Spider-Man yells at the army for trying to kill someone who saved a bus full of kids (“some time ago,” see NOTE).
SYNOPSIS:
The news reports that Daredevil’s body has been found and that the President is holding a press conference. Meanwhile, Jonah writes a story about how he was wrong about Spider-Man. Meanwhile, the Ultimates clean up Manhattan and find Spider-Man under some rubble, still alive.

NOTE:
I was confused by the Hulk being green (I’ve only ever seen a grey Ultimate Hulk) so I poked around the internet a bit and APPARENTLY, this flashback is a retelling of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #2-3. Both this and the Team-Up issues are presented as the first time Spider-Man’s met the Hulk, both times Spider-Man discovers Hulk is the famous scientist Bruce Banner. However, Peter hears about the Hulk attack at the Bugle in Team-Up and he hears about it at school while in class here. In Team-Up the big finish is in a warehouse (where Spider-Man calms down Hulk by feeding him fish, or something?), here, the big finish is on a bridge where Hulk saves some kids in a bus. Basically, the two stories don’t seem to be reconcilable (both stories were written by Bendis, oddly).

Now, on the one hand, we could just say this flashback is wrong; Jonah is reading one of Urich’s stories as the framing sequence. Urich wouldn’t know what Peter and Mary Jane were talking about in school, or that Peter’s Spider-Man, or what Spider-Man and Bruce were talking about on the bridge.

On the other hand, aren’t some issues of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up non-canon to the Ultimate Universe? The issue with the Fantastic Four, if I remember right? Well, what if the whole Ultimate Marvel Team-Up series was non-canon? In that case, this flashback would replace Team-Up #2-3 in the various chronologies. But then, Urich's notes in this mini reference the FF issue of Team-Up, so who knows?

I’m undecided, but for the moment I’ll just suggest leaving this flashback out and leave Team-Up #2-3 alone. I haven’t read any issues of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, and really, I’m only doing this mini to fill out Power Princess’ chronology.

Chronology placements, all on the Ultimate page:

CAPTAIN AMERICA/STEVE ROGERS

ULTIMATUM 5
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 2

DAREDEVIL/MATT MURDOCK
ULTIMATUM 5-BTS
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 2-BTS

IRON MAN/ANTHONY STARK

ULTP 9
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1-FB
ULTIMATUM 1

ULTIMATUM 5
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 2

JAMESON, J. JONAH

ULTSM 29
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1 (9-29)-FB
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1 (4:5)-FB
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 2

MADAME HYDRA
ULTIMATUM:SMR 1-FB

OBAMA, BARACK
ULTIMATUM:SMR 2-BTS

ROBERTSON, JOE "ROBBIE"

ULTSM 29
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1-FB
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1

SPIDER-MAN/PETER PARKER

ULTP 9
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1 (9-29)-FB
ULTIMATUM 1
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1 (4:5)-FB
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 2-FB
ULTIMATUM 2
ULTIMATUM 4
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 2

URICH, BEN

ULTSM 31
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1-FB
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1

WATSON, MARY JANE

ULTSM 32
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 1-FB
ULTIMATUM 1

And this one’s on the regular pages:

POWER PRINCESS/ZARDA/”CLAIRE DEBUSSY” | SUPREME POWER-VERSE

ULTIMATUM 5
*ULTIMATUM:SMR 2
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Re: Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem #1-2

Post by loki »

Col_Fury wrote: ULTIMATUM: SPIDER-MAN REQUIEM #2 (September 2009)
NOTE:
I was confused by the Hulk being green (I’ve only ever seen a grey Ultimate Hulk) so I poked around the internet a bit and APPARENTLY, this flashback is a retelling of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #2-3. Both this and the Team-Up issues are presented as the first time Spider-Man’s met the Hulk, both times Spider-Man discovers Hulk is the famous scientist Bruce Banner. However, Peter hears about the Hulk attack at the Bugle in Team-Up and he hears about it at school while in class here. In Team-Up the big finish is in a warehouse (where Spider-Man calms down Hulk by feeding him fish, or something?), here, the big finish is on a bridge where Hulk saves some kids in a bus. Basically, the two stories don’t seem to be reconcilable (both stories were written by Bendis, oddly).

Now, on the one hand, we could just say this flashback is wrong; Jonah is reading one of Urich’s stories as the framing sequence. Urich wouldn’t know what Peter and Mary Jane were talking about in school, or that Peter’s Spider-Man, or what Spider-Man and Bruce were talking about on the bridge.

On the other hand, aren’t some issues of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up non-canon to the Ultimate Universe? The issue with the Fantastic Four, if I remember right? Well, what if the whole Ultimate Marvel Team-Up series was non-canon? In that case, this flashback would replace Team-Up #2-3 in the various chronologies. But then, Urich's notes in this mini reference the FF issue of Team-Up, so who knows?

I’m undecided, but for the moment I’ll just suggest leaving this flashback out and leave Team-Up #2-3 alone. I haven’t read any issues of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, and really, I’m only doing this mini to fill out Power Princess’ chronology.
With regard to UMTU, it is all considered to be canon bar the stuff with the FF (the issue they appear in, and one scene in a later issue where Spider-Man meets up with the Torch). That said, certain details can be considered suspect - at the time of writing the Ultimate Universe handbooks the Ultimate Iron Man series were canon, so Tony being a regenerating mutant whose entire body was brain tissue was considered his true origin, which meant the origin he presented in his appearance in UMTU was treated as a fabrication put together for public consumption. With the later retconning out of the Ultimate Iron Man series as being some bizarre anime series Tony had licensed, the UMTU origin for Iron Man might be back in.

With regard to the discrepancies between how the original Hulk / Spider-Man meeting was presented, I'd go with your suggestion for in-universe - it's Urich getting the details wrong. Real world, it is probably simply Bendis not remembering the details of what he wrote before.
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Re: Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem #1-2

Post by Col_Fury »

loki wrote:Tony being a regenerating mutant whose entire body was brain tissue
…what?
loki wrote:the later retconning out of the Ultimate Iron Man series as being some bizarre anime series Tony had licensed
Whoever had the idea to retcon that, good call.
loki wrote:Real world, it is probably simply Bendis not remembering the details of what he wrote before.
Yeah.
loki wrote:With regard to the discrepancies between how the original Hulk / Spider-Man meeting was presented, I'd go with your suggestion for in-universe - it's Urich getting the details wrong.
Works for me! :)
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Re: Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem #1-2

Post by Somebody »

Col_Fury wrote:
loki wrote:Tony being a regenerating mutant whose entire body was brain tissue
…what?
Orson Scott Card.
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